As Southeast is working toward the actions set forth in the Strategic Action Plan to improve communications with students and help them navigate University academic and business processes, Student Financial Services is leading an initiative to implement a chatbot on some semo.edu web pages.
The chatbot will answer frequently asked questions and direct students to a person if needed.
Southeast has partnered with Ocelot to implement the Artificial Intelligence Chatbot. Ocelot’s chatbot comes pre-loaded with a comprehensive knowledgebase of responses to the most common questions from 30+ departments (e.g., Financial Aid, Admissions, Parking, Registrar) that are common to higher education institutions. The Ocelot library is the largest of its kind in the U.S. Features also include multilingual capabilities, live chat handoff options, and the ability to add and customize content.
In the coming weeks, Dr. Matthew Kearney, director of Student Financial Services, will be contacting departments for which Ocelot has a Q&A library to customize information for Southeast before the chatbot goes live. Department leads will be asked to designate someone from their office to serve on a committee that will be charged with continuous improvement of chatbot capabilities by providing answers to new questions or updating answers as necessary.
“Schools who have partnered with Ocelot have seen decreases in calls, emails, and office visits because those questions can easily be answered by the chatbot,” says Kearney. “These schools have also seen increased student engagement and satisfaction and increased yield and retention rates. I’m excited to see us move forward with a partnership to provide prospective students, current students, faculty, and staff greater and timelier access to information that is relevant to their needs.”